Tag Archives: investment

Every homeowner wants to make sure they maximize their financial reward when selling their home. But how do you guarantee that you receive maximum value for your house? Here are two keys to ensuring you get the highest price possible.

1. Price it a LITTLE LOW

This may seem counter intuitive. However, let’s look at this concept for a moment. Many homeowners think that pricing their home a little OVER market value will leave them room for negotiation. In actuality, this just dramatically lessens the demand for your house (see chart below).

Instead of the seller trying to ‘win’ the negotiation with one buyer, they should price it so that demand for the home is maximized. In that way, the seller will not be fighting with a buyer over the price, but instead will have multiple buyers fighting with each other over the house.

Realtor.com, gives this advice:

“Aim to price your property at or just slightly below the going rate. Today’s buyers are highly informed, so if they sense they’re getting a deal, they’re likely to bid up a property that’s slightly under priced, especially in areas with low inventory.”

2. Use a Real Estate Professional

This too may seem counter intuitive. The seller may think they would net more money if they didn’t have to pay a real estate commission. With this being said, studies have shown that homes typically sell for more money when handled by a real estate professional.

Research posted by the Economists’ Outlook Blog revealed that:

“The median selling price for all FSBO homes was $210,000 last year. When the buyer knew the seller in FSBO sales, the number sinks to the median selling price of $151,900. However, homes that were sold with the assistance of an agent had a median selling price of $249,000 – nearly $40,000 more for the typical home sale.”

Bottom Line

Price your house at or slightly below the current market value and hire a professional. That will guarantee you maximize the price you get for your house.

Today, many real estate conversations center on housing prices and where they may be headed. That is why we like the Home Price Expectation Survey.

Every quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists about where they believe prices are headed over the next five years. They then average the projections of all 100+ experts into a single number.

The results of their latest survey:

Home values will appreciate by 3.7% over the course of 2016, 3.3% in 2017 and 3.2% in the next two years, and finally 3.1% in 2020 (as shown below). That means the average annual appreciation will be 3.3% over the next 5 years.

The prediction for cumulative appreciation slowed slightly from 21.6% to 17.7% by 2020. The experts making up the most bearish quartile of the survey still are projecting a cumulative appreciation of 10.9%.

Bottom Line

Individual opinions make headlines. We believe the survey is a fairer depiction of future values.

Seattle is back on the list of the top five U.S. cities for foreign commercial real estate investment, according to a new survey.

This means that domestic investors will face stiffer competition buying properties in the Puget Sound region. Survey respondents said they’re most interested in buying apartment buildings and industrial properties.

The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) on Monday released its 24th annual survey of members, and Seattle tied with Boston for fifth place. It’s only the second time Seattle has made the top five, and the first time since 2006. Seattle ranked eighth last year.

Washington, D.C.-based AFIRE has nearly 200 members representing 21 countries. The group says its members are among the largest international institutional real estate investors in the world with an estimated $2 trillion or more in real estate assets under management globally.

A Union Investment executive, Martin Bruhl, said Seattle is an attractive place to invest because it’s one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities and attractive to young, well-educated people.

James A. Fetgatter, chief of Washington, D.C.-based AFIRE said it’s the United States itself that is the investment opportunity. The real estate fundamentals are sound, and the economy continues to remain strong, both in gateway and secondary cities, he said.

Sixty percent of survey respondents said the U.S. was the country providing the most stable and secure real estate investments. Germany, which came in second, had only 19 percent of the vote in this category.

In addition, 46 percent of respondents said the U.S. was the country with the best opportunity for capital appreciation.

Respondents said that in the U.S., multifamily and industrial properties tied for first place as the preferred investment type. Retail was third, office fourth and hotels fifth.

Globally, New York City and London were ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the survey. They were followed by Los Angeles, Berlin and San Francisco.

In the U.S., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., ranked respectively ahead of Seattle and Boston.

The James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business conducted the survey during the fourth quarter.